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Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on as she attends a meeting with young migrants, after receiving the lamp of St Francis – the “Nobel” Catholic for “her work of conciliation for the peaceful cohabitation of peoples” – at The Basilica Superiore of St Francis of Assisi, in Assisi on May 12, 2018.Andreas SOLARO / AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said she was deeply concerned by repeated breaches of a ceasefire between government forces and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

“Every night there are violations of the ceasefire and every day there are human casualties,” Merkel said in the central Italian town of Assisi, where she received a prize for her efforts to promote peace.

“Ukraine concerns us and in the ‘Normandy Format’ — which groups Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine — we try to get the Minsk (ceasefire) accords respected,” she said.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after mass protests ousted a pro-Russian government in Kiev, with more than 10,000 people dead so far despite repeated efforts to get successive ceasefires to stick, the last dating to the end of March.

Daughter of a Protestant pastor, Merkel was awarded the Peace Lamp of Saint Francis prize by Franciscan monks for “her work on reconciliation, promoting peaceful coexistence between peoples”.

Others who have received the “Catholic Nobel” include Pope John-Paul II, Mother Teresa and Mikhail Gorbachev.